Snapchat is harming children at an industrial scale? • Hacker News Board

Re: Snapchat is harming children at an industrial scale?

#11

Post by zonkerdonker » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 6:53 PM UTC

burningChrome wrote: post #5

With both of these articles, are we finally getting to a tipping point with social media and its negative effects on people?

People knew smoking killed for decades. Do you think that with no policy change and no regulation, that Marlboro and Philip Morris would have let their market tank?

Advertising - banned, smoking indoors - banned, and most importantly, taxing the hell out of them (every 10% increase in cigarette prices results in a 4% decrease in adult consumption and a 7% decrease in youth consumption).

There isn't really directly comparable policy to taxing these free social media platforms., however, and the whole thing is a bit stickier. Before any policies can stick, the public needs to be aware of the issues. That is tough when most people's 'awareness of issues' comes directly from social media.

Re: Snapchat is harming children at an industrial scale?

#12

Post by rattlesnakedave » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 6:55 PM UTC

This all seems like obvious byproducts of an ephemeral photo based platform. Beyond these, there's also the shitty "explore" feature that pushes sexually explicit content that can't be disabled. Surprised that's not mentioned here.

Re: Snapchat is harming children at an industrial scale?

#13

Post by graemep » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 6:59 PM UTC

pelagicAustral wrote: post #4

dang wrote: post #2

There was a related thread on the front page: TikTok is harming children at an industrial scale - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43716665 Since that article is several months old and this one is new, we swapped it out. I assume it makes more sense to discuss the new one. Also, there were lots of criticisms of the other article for supposedly focusing only on TikTok, and those criticisms seem supplanted by this…

You can essentially just wildcard the social network name and everything still applies. That's the status quo

Except FB, which mostly harms the middle aged.

Re: Snapchat is harming children at an industrial scale?

#14

Post by fazeirony » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 7:04 PM UTC

burningChrome wrote: post #5

With both of these articles, are we finally getting to a tipping point with social media and its negative effects on people?

for sure. but if ANY of that kind of thing gets in the way of profits, well then that's not OK. in capitalism, profit is the only thing that matters. CSAM? drugs? underage use? pfft.

until this country gets serious about this stuff - and don't hold your breath on that - this is the absolute acceptable norm.

Re: Snapchat is harming children at an industrial scale?

#15

Post by morkalork » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 7:06 PM UTC

graemep wrote: post #13

pelagicAustral wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can essentially just wildcard the social network name and everything still applies. That's the status quo

Except FB, which mostly harms the middle aged.

It was harming kids on an industrial scale back when it was new, before Instagram et al cannabalized their audience

Re: Snapchat is harming children at an industrial scale?

#16

Post by WhereIsTheTruth » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 7:09 PM UTC

graemep wrote: post #13

pelagicAustral wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can essentially just wildcard the social network name and everything still applies. That's the status quo

Except FB, which mostly harms the middle aged.

and countries, at a secret service scale

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/09/myanmar-faceb...

Re: Snapchat is harming children at an industrial scale?

#17

Post by cmrdporcupine » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 7:10 PM UTC

Frieren wrote: post #10

Each generation of parents fails on something. This generation is failing at recognizing the dangers of social media. Teenagers and even children are being radicalized on-line, sold dangerous diets, manipulated by state sponsored creators, lied by companies, taught anti-science, and the list goes on and on. How is all this not heavily regulated? Even adults need protection from scammers, fake products, misleading ads…

As a parent, I never failed to recognize it.

I just failed to be able to do anything about it.

You were a teenager once, I'm sure you can remember how little influence your parents actually had over how you actually spent your time. Or at least saw that in your friends.

This is a society wide thing. Parents are pretty much powerless.

So yes, regulation. But you'll see how discussion of any proposal for this goes down in this forum. Just imagine across the whole polis.

Re: Snapchat is harming children at an industrial scale?

#18

Post by basisword » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 7:11 PM UTC

morkalork wrote: post #15

graemep wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except FB, which mostly harms the middle aged.

It was harming kids on an industrial scale back when it was new, before Instagram et al cannabalized their audience

Was it? In Facebook’s early days you actually followed your friends and only saw their content. There wasn’t even an algorithm until a few years in when they stopped showing the feed chronologically. It wasn’t perfect but it was largely just an extension of your IRL social life.

Re: Snapchat is harming children at an industrial scale?

#19

Post by radicaldreamer » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 7:12 PM UTC

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #17

Frieren wrote: post #10

Each generation of parents fails on something. This generation is failing at recognizing the dangers of social media. Teenagers and even children are being radicalized on-line, sold dangerous diets, manipulated by state sponsored creators, lied by companies, taught anti-science, and the list goes on and on. How is all this not heavily regulated? Even adults need protection from scammers, fake products, misleading ads…

As a parent, I never failed to recognize it. I just failed to be able to do anything about it. You were a teenager once, I'm sure you can remember how little influence your parents actually had over how you actually spent your time. Or at least saw that in your friends. This is a society wide thing. Parents are pretty much powerless. So yes, regulation. But you'll see how discussion of any proposal for this goes down…

Regulation of social media probably polls pretty well, I think polls have even found that most high schoolers want to reduce or end their usage of it

Re: Snapchat is harming children at an industrial scale?

#20

Post by basisword » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 7:13 PM UTC

Frieren wrote: post #10

Each generation of parents fails on something. This generation is failing at recognizing the dangers of social media. Teenagers and even children are being radicalized on-line, sold dangerous diets, manipulated by state sponsored creators, lied by companies, taught anti-science, and the list goes on and on. How is all this not heavily regulated? Even adults need protection from scammers, fake products, misleading ads…

>> How is all this not heavily regulated?

It isn’t properly regulated because the CEO’s and founders just moan that it isn’t possible to regulate so much user generated content. I’m of the opinion that, in that case, their sites shouldn’t exist but people seem to have convinced themselves that Facebook et al provide too much value to stand up to.